How I Wrote a Sales Book Inside a Novel and Got it Published

More than any question about sales or career or leadership, I am asked about how I got a book published. It has been quite a story.

Let’s start with your motivations. Why do you feel you have a story to tell? What do you want to achieve from writing it? Do you wish to be published, do you want to make money, do you want to capture a moment in time or an idea and cement it in text? Whatever the motivation, this needs to be front and center; just like a great idea can spark a business but can’t sustain it, a great idea may prompt you to begin writing but will not sustain you through the process of shopping the book, marketing the book and what you decide to do with your work over the long haul.

I’ve seen several people start writing something. They were motivated to begin the work based on an idea, only to become frustrated with it (much like motivation to work out or change diet). It’s not that you have the idea or start it, but do you have the tenacity to plow through roadblocks and see your work come to fruition? Do you have the patience to read your own work numerous times as you edit? Do you have what it takes to research how to put together query letters, look for publishers and agents, wait for your book to see the light of day, and depending on the quality of your publisher do your own legwork to market it and get it in stores?

“Birth of a Salesman” and subsequent sequels “The Salesman Against the World” and “A Salesman Forever” were a labor of love for me. I have wanted to write since I was a kid. My Mom let me play with their typewriter when I was 3 years old. I’d write stories where my friends and I were the officers on a spaceship in outer space adventures. I wrote an elaborate time travel story in 3rd grade. As years went by, I wrote more and more – most prominently probably a 26-installment short story spoof collection with two of my best friends (we’d take turns writing pages and the story went in crazy directions).

I never intended to get into sales. After college, a friend’s aunt landed me an interview for a role I thought was in customer service. Through what I thought at the time was arduous training that saw a 15% graduation rate, I emerged into a sales role and found success. Over the years, I served in multiple levels of sales and management, always at the top of the selling charts. That said, I continued writing – often articles for a company newsletter that focused on sales excellence. I found passion for selling like I had passion for writing, so it was natural to marry the two.

If…

STEP ONE is find your motivations…

STEP TWO is write your passions and

STEP THREE is JUST WRITE.

STEP FOUR is put your unique spin on it.

I enjoyed writing and I liked writing about sales, and I found myself covering a litany of topics that would do well in a sales book. That said, how many sales books are out there? They are a dime a dozen. Not to say there aren’t very valid perspectives and approaches out there, but why would anybody care what some small-town boy thought in his handful of years of sales success? Yes, I was very successful in selling and promoted multiple times, so there was credibility… but looking back, I knew relatively nothing about sales compared to what I have learned since.

I say JUST WRITE because writing a book is like any goal. Sometimes you have to put a lot of work into it, and if you think about how much work it could scare you off. Write a little every day or two. When you have ideas you want to incorporate and you’re not in a position to write on your book, make notes on your phone or notebook. You never know when ideas will strike, so you have to seize them when you have them, but you can make the project of writing a book a lot less daunting by just writing a little bit every day. Eventually, you’ll look back and have your work of art. Finding time can be a challenge, but we make time for what matters. With 168 hours in a week, finding a handful of those to spend on your passion project is relatively easy, even if you’re a workaholic and parent and gym rat and pulled in a thousand directions (or if your significant other ever wants to see you).

In a career, you’ll have several experiences that could probably fit well into a book or movie. During dinner with a friend, and actually having recently watched a TV show where the main character turned his experiences into a book, my idea and motivation found legs: I’d mix a sales book with a novel, create a protagonist who was the fictional author of the sales book inside the book, and incorporate themes I’d seen in my career.

Over the months to come I had bursts of energy to spend on the book. While I harked back to materials I had been writing for years as inspiration, I spent 8 months writing, organizing and putting it all together.

STEP FIVE: How do you publish?

Book One, I really wanted to find an actual live publisher. I purchased a book called “The Writer’s Market” (highly recommend) and spent a lot of time researching online. I used a service called Bookblaster and I used a website called Preditors and Editors (highly recommend). It was relatively easy to find names of publishers and agents, genres in which they did business, how they wished to be contacted, and “Writer’s Market” among other sources gave a wealth of information about how to write an effective query letter and contact info for publishers and agents. I got to work on this process.

In all, I sent out 968 query letters, mostly by e-mail, to publishers and agents. I got a ton of rejections. 15 offered to read my work. 6 offered to publish it. I picked the one who promised the best distribution – my book would be online in multiple locations, in stores, etc., and they promised some marketing.

STEP SIX: How do you sell it? I have read statistics claiming 95% of books sell less than 100 copies. They say once you sell to your friends and family and buy some for yourself, that’s the end. Publishers may have some means of marketing, but I quickly learned my publisher did not do much to proactively market (outside of a blog and website that I’m not sure was getting traffic).

I researched ways to promote my work, which led me to open several social media accounts specifically for the book itself: Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook. I had a LinkedIn. There were online forums I could post about my work in. I also did research into local newspaper and radio contacts and reached out to them, posting a press release in numerous spots. My Dad knew some folks at my hometown radio station and newspaper (I wound up in both multiple times) and I just started posting everywhere I could think to. Over the years, I have been interviewed by countless folks I met via social media (mostly Twitter and LinkedIn) and have been asked to write articles for a number of publications just because I blogged and was regularly putting myself out there.

It’s not to say I haven’t made social media mistakes; I’m sure I’ve made numerous. Finding the right ones to be on, posting the right content at the right frequency and finding ways to grow your presence (I now have over 300,000 Twitter followers - #5 in St. Louis and over 10,000 LinkedIn followers, plus 2,500 on YouTube and thousands on other mediums) have been focuses that have evolved constantly over the last several years. I’ve used tools to automate posts and responses, and have tweaked these things so many times based on feedback and results. And I’m still learning. Always learning.

STEP SEVEN: What’s next?

Well, I viewed my sales ranking spike numerous times but was being told I wasn’t selling as much as that tracking reflected. This prompted me to explore self-publishing Book #2. I also re-branded Book #1 and re-released it. I found Kindle and playing with promotions (like doing free books or 99 cent books) really boosted sales – I’d get 10 times the book sales in a month by playing around with stuff like that. I also asked people I knew who could put in a plug or give me a review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or on their expansive social media networks to help me out. And I just kept writing.

Self-publishing is revolutionary in the publishing business. I won’t claim I got a big name publisher, and I have thought numerous times about taking the time to re-package my work and get it in the hands of one. Maybe someday.

For me, writing the book was never about money or selling enough to retire early (though that would be nice). It was about sharing something I felt passionate about and hoping others find success or motivation from what I’ve done and where I’ve been. I’ve made these mistakes in my career so you don’t have to.

Trust me, after writing a book, editing it numerous times and having to read your work over and over, you’re done with it, so I’ve had years where I’ve stepped away from the work. Last year, I looked back at 2010’s “Birth of a Salesman” and decided I felt so differently about sales and leadership and what I’d written, that I re-edited and changed some content. Afterwards, I did the same with Book Two. Then, I released a 1,000+ page e-Book of all three. Now, I’m done tinkering with them (think George Lucas’s “Star Wars” special editions).

Will I write another book? I have no idea. But it has been by far the most rewarding experience of my career. It is something that is unique which interviewers have asked me about, co-workers have asked me about, and I have interacted with people from all over the world because of. I still get asked to partake in interviews or be on podcasts or even host a radio show – all because almost a decade ago I decided to write a book.

Many have more success than I’ve had with my books, but I know a lot of people never see them all the way through. Know that if you do, even if it just results in a book on your shelf or your family and friends reading your work, it’s an achievement and an accomplishment that most people never complete. It’s hard work, and not everyone becomes a bestseller, but you never know: it could take off in ways you could never imagine.

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Carson V. Heady has written a book entitled "Birth of a Salesman" and sequels "The Salesman Against the World" and "A Salesman Forever" which take the unique approach of serving as sales/leadership books inside of novels showing proven sales principles designed to birth you into the top producer you were born to be. If you would like to strengthen your sales skills, go to https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ICRVMI2/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_yGXKtb0G

Heady posts for "Consult Carson" serving as the "Dear Abby" of sales and sales leadership. You may post any question that puzzles you regarding sales and sales leadership careers: interviewing, the sales process, advancing and achieving.

Question submissions can be made via LinkedIn to Carson V. Heady, this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carson-V-Heady/125078150858064?ref=hl , Twitter via @cvheady007 or e-mail at [email protected] or you may post an anonymous comment as a reply to my WordPress blog at the bottom of this page: https://carsonvheady.wordpress.com/the-home-of-birth-of-a-salesman-2010-published-by-world-audience-inc-and-the-salesman-against-the-world-2014/